A Confederate Cowboy Casanova
by Ms Llewellyn
Summary: Bella Swan is in the year 1863, weeks before the battle of Galveston. How can this twentieth-first century girl survive, especially when her lit has labeled her a Northerner? FULL SUMMARY INSIDE. Jasper/Bella
1. Prologue

**_A Confederate Cowboy Casanova_**

**_Summary: _**

_Edward Cullen left Isabella Swan for her own good - and really it was. Fate had plans for Isabella and none of them involved the man-child Edward. When Bella comes into procession of an old family heirloom that had been passed on from mother to daughter for the last three generations, She's in for a surprise when Cliff Diving became a whole new adventure when she appears in Swan Lake Texas, merely weeks before the fated battle of Galveston, 1863, is to take place. How can this twentieth-first century girl survive, especially when her lit has labeled her a Northerner? Captive by Southern Confederate Soldiers she's thrust into the care of a familiar face; Major Jasper Whitlock. Labeled as a Union spy, can Jasper capture the secrets in her eyes without falling in love? _

**_Prologue_**

_"I love you,"_

_I never thought I would hear those sweet words uttered by marble lips, lips that had already once before uttered them when they had been petal smooth and pliable. Staring into the imperial topaz eyes, I imagined them a deep blue. He was in there, he was this stranger and the man that fixed me. When he disappeared that night during the evacuation of Galveston, I never thought I'd have him again - because were I was from, he already had someone else. Someone he didn't need to be careful with, someone who knew him in this life, while I only knew of him in the past. _

_I, many, say the past is exactly that and should stay there, but with him before me, his features sharp, defined and ethereal while his skin shone like diamonds beneath the weak Washington sun - I didn't want the past to stay in the past. I want it to be my future, my forever. I wanted the soldier I fell in love with and I wanted to get to know this creature - they were one and the same; the way he smiled was familiar and my heart skipped beats. He was in there, I knew he was. _

_I wanted to blurt out the very same words, the words I never got to say. But I couldn't, because it wasn't my place. How did I even know it was the romantic love of our shared humanity? He could be saying he loved me as if I were his sister. I had been, till Edward left me, or that perhaps it was that fateful day the cliffs. My mouth opened and snapped shut and in my silence I could feel it swirling beneath me and tears came to my eyes. I couldn't have him, he was married to Alice - his wife of sixty years and my sister. _

_My hands came up to cradle my stomach, the last gift from my soldier. _

_"I can't," slipped from my lips and fell into the wind. A mere whisper, but I knew he heard. And I didn't even know what I meant._


	2. Chapter 1: Ill Fated Love

**A Confederate Cowboy Casanova**

**Chapter One: Ill fated love**

_"Then there's the story of ill-fated love. It's Universal." _

**_~ Rita Moreno_**

Romeo and Juliet.

He said we were like them, a tragic love. I should have looked closer at that statement. Romeo and Juliet had loved each other, may have defied their families and tried to elope, but they died. One sleeping, the other committing suicide, followed swiftly by the other. A true story of tragic love.

The only thing different between us and them? My romeo is already dead and he may have just killed the last of my heart. Was emotional suicide possible? I believed it was. There was so much pain in my chest, like he took his cold hand and gripped my heart and squeezed. It felt shattered and the shards were paining me. I have no more tears to cry. Even if I did, I'm not sure I could. I had cried excessively already and my eyes are read and puffy and they sting. A mirror to the pain in my heart and the ache behind my eyes, the throbbing of my veins.

He said I would forget him, called my mind a sieve. Not only did he crush my heart, he crushed my spirit and he took all mementos he had ever given me with him. The one thing he could not take though, were the memories. My mind was not a sieve, filled with wholes and my memories were not some liquid that could be drained. For someone who acts and wishes to be human, who lives like one, he doesn't know their minds very well. My mind may not be eidetic like a vampires, but it would not forget my love. My first love. Don't they say, you never forget your first love?

I remember all the moments we had together, both the good and the bad, and it is hard to believe it is a lie. He never loved me, never wanted me. I was just his human toy, something knew he couldn't figure out because he couldn't read my mind. I was a distraction in his long existence. He was just playing with his food before he decided what to do with it - I was his singer, I called to him. But not in some romantic soul-mate kind of way.

Sometimes I just wish I could go numb. Staring out into the snow covered forest from my place in front of the window, my father, Charlie, shoveling the drive - I wish I could be as clean and new, untainted, emotionless as the snow he shoveled. A blank slate. I knew I was hurting him, I'm not blind. I can see the faint bruises beneath his eyes from not sleeping. Edward has taken over my dreams, he shattered me here and now he shatters me in my sleep as well. I doubt I looked any better, perhaps I looked worse. I felt like it.

I want one good nights sleep instead of the hauntingly beautiful face and eyes of Edward Cullen. I didn't want to hear cruel words come from sweet lips that were curved into that half-smile that always made my heart pound and wings flutter in my stomach.

Edward Cullen was a jerk and I wished I could hate him.

"Bella?..." came the quiet whisper of my mother behind me. I glanced wearily behind me, my lips forever frowning, thought I wished I could take the worry from her eyes with a small smile. I knew she cared, and I thank her for that. But didn't she understand? I was broken and I couldn't be fixed. Only he can fix me.

"Bella, sweetheart, I've got lunch." she said holding out a small plate with a grilled cheese sandwich resting on it. It smelled delicious, it made my stomach roil in protest. I don't eat much anymore. He stole that too. I turned away and stared back out the window, hoping against hope that the Cullen's hadn't really abandoned me, they were simply lurking within the trees.

"You really need to eat something you know. I can understand what your feeling" Renee stared. No she didn't, no one could understand. "I loved someone I thought I couldn't live without. This was before your father mind, but I learned to live without him. We may never forget our first love, Bella, but we can move on from them. Our hearts have the ability to love more than once." she whispered sitting next to me, her hand resting lightly on my shoulder. I didn't want to forget him - perhaps that was the fear that coiled inside of me. Surely, one day, I will forget - what he looked like, what he tasted like, what he sounded and smelled like.

"Oh, I have a gift. I think you could use this more than me." Renee whispered pulling a small chain from her pocket and holding it out to me. at the end of the chain dangled a piece of shinny sea glass wrapped in wire. And in the middle, it looked like a flame burned. It was beautiful. I remember seeing this once, when I was a little girl.

"Your grandmother gave this too me, after James left me and before I met your father. I saw no hope in the world, it seemed dark and suffocating. But this, she handed it to me one day, said her mother gave it to her who got it from a young woman who went by the name Isabella. She said, the flame in the middle represented the fire of life and all it stood for. Love, hope, passion, desire. Rebirth. And that the sea glass around it, kept it alive, healed it. Grandmother said, that just because one door closes, another will open, with a more brighter and less desolate future. This necklace was to be that Representative. Apparently this Isabella woman, got it as a gift from her greatest, more fulfilling second love." She said. I watched silently as Renee gripped my hand and placed the necklace in the palm of my hand. The sea glass cool in the palm of my hand.

"I thought, you could use this to give you a little hope, that you can and will survive and find love again." My mother whispered into my ear as she pulled me into a hug and kissed the side of my head. I gripped the necklace and watched as my mother strolled, shoulder slumped out of my bedroom. I turned back to the necklace.

It was beautiful, but I don't think it could help me. I would never love another like Edward. No one could compare.

"No one could even come close," I whispered slipping the necklace on.


	3. Chapter 2:Dangerous Just to See his Face

**A Confederate Cowboy Casanova**

**Chapter Two: Dangerous Just to see his face**

_"I have a bit of a rebellious nature."_

_~ **John Cusack**_

I saw him.

It was for only a moment, but I saw him. His beautiful, unnatural face.

I was an idiot.

I don't know what drove me to do what I did. Normally I wasn't so rebellious, so adventurous, or assertive to jump on the back of an older man's bike and let him take me for a spin. I just wanted to see him again, Edward, my beautiful, sweet, Edward. Was that so wrong? According to Jessica, yes, it was. And now, hours later, down from my adrenaline and Edward high - I have to agree. I didn't know that man! For all I know, he could have been an ax-murderer. But I found it.

The key that would stop driving me insane from not seeing him - to catch a glimpse, to hear his voice but a whisper in my ear, I'd do anything. Jake may be my sun, but Edward was my world. I have Jake teaching me how to ride. The first time on the bikes I found, I saw him. I also almost cracked my skull open the second time.

I gave up the bike. It's been a month. I wanted to see him desperately and I believe I'm about to do something utterly stupid once again. It couldn't be that dangerous, I mean the Pack do it all the time. Besides, it wasn't like this was going to kill me. The leaves crunched beneath my feet as I trudged deeper into the forest, closer to the edge of the cliff where the mainland met the Pacific Ocean. The sea salt clogged the air and cleared my senses.

And then I was there, the Pacific wide and open to me. It stretched for an eternity, an eternity I wanted to venture toward with Edward. I stared into the waves as they crashed into the cliff side. The day was dark and gloomy and for a moment, staring into the dark depths, I felt fear and I wondered. Should I really being doing this? But as quickly as it came, that doubt vanished and I was left with only one option.

If I jump, perhaps Alice will see. If I jump, If I pretend, will he come for me? Can I have my forever? I pulled off my sweater. Stepped to the edge, grabbed my necklace, placed a kiss upon it's glass and released it. Taking a few steps back and I ran and lept. It was like flying, your weightless for only a moment. In that moment, it's nothing but freedom. And then your falling, fast. I met the water with a crash, my throat closing preventing me from swallowing the sea water.

I saw him. He was there, his imperial topaz eyes gazing at me. His beautiful face in a frown. He whispered his disappointment. He had my full attention. That is until the spot of red gathered at the corner of my eye.

Turning, I saw her. Victoria. The red headed vampire out for my blood, for the death of her mate. Her blood red-eyes locked with mine and I felt fear. A deep rooted fear, I was in the water, with her alone. No vampire to stop her, no wolves to protect me. I backed up whipping the image of Edward from me.

The last I saw, was her ravenous eyes before my world turned black.


End file.
